


Alain

by Mairwen



Category: War Horse (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-28
Updated: 2012-06-28
Packaged: 2017-11-08 17:49:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/445838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mairwen/pseuds/Mairwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His name is Alain now, but it wasn’t always.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alain

His name is Alain now, but it wasn’t always. He knows this, despite not knowing what his name was before.

He dreams sometimes, in English. He thinks these must be memories, but they do not survive to be examined in the light of day. The fragments he remembers long enough to describe to Bernard seem to be destroyed by the words he uses to convey them. He learns nothing.

Bernard tells him that he was found on a battlefield, a bullet in his shoulder, his head bashed in when he fell upon a rock. From the force, he must have been thrown by an explosion, or have fallen from a height. Either way, the stone dashed out his memories, and almost his life.

Alain asks Bernard many times if he doesn’t remember more details: What was he wearing? Weren’t there any photographs in his pocket? Bernard claims ignorance.

“I didn’t find you. I met you in the infirmary.” He never meets Alain’s eyes when he says this. Alain wonders what he is hiding.

________

His first thought upon seeing the man, was that with his blue eyes and blonde hair, he looked like a German. Bernard stood on the field of battle, looting the bodies of the dead. He hated himself for it, but the army had taken everything as they passed through, as though they were locusts and not men. It was a matter of survival, and when it came to his family, Bernard was not too proud to steal from the dead who needed their possessions no more.

When he heard the groan, he started, almost ran. The battle had been two days ago; surely all who moved here were carrion-eaters and Bernard himself. But the sound came again, from the ground near his feet. Incredibly, a man lived.

Not sure why he did so, Bernard lifted the German-looking man in the English uniform over his shoulders and carried him home.

________

“What have you done? If anyone finds out you helped an English officer, we will all be shot!” His wife had always been the more practical one. For once, he stood his ground.

“He is a man. He is still alive for a reason. I was there to find him. There must be a reason why.”

“You argue philosophy and fate! Do you want us to die?”

Bernard managed to convince Charlotte, as he always did when he bothered to try. They removed the uniform, caked in blood and mud, and dressed him in clothes of Bernard’s own before calling in the local doctor.

It is three months before the man speaks.

_______

“You are very good with horses.”

Alain starts; he did not know Bernard was there.

“They seem to like me. I understand them.” Alain’s French is improving. Bernard and Charlotte speak very little English, so the man had no choice but to learn French. They had taken him in when he was released from the doctor’s care, allowing him to repay them with the work of his hands.

“That horse would never let me near him. Charlotte wanted me to sell him for meat.”

Alain looked surprised, then nodded. A horse is of no use if you cannot use him for work.

“Sometimes I dream of a horse.” His admission is tentative. He doesn’t know if there is anything to be gained here. “It’s always the same horse,” he adds.

“Go on,” Bernard leans on the fence, indicating he’s ready to listen.

“It’s a chestnut…it’s not a stallion…it’s a work horse. It has a white…I don’t know the word.” He points between the eyes of the horse in front of him.

“A blaze? Like a star.”

“Yes, that must be it. A blaze.” Alain tries the new French word out on his tongue. “And white socks as well. There’s a boy, too. I say a boy, almost a man. He’s upset. He loves the horse, and I think I am taking the horse away. I distinctly remember promising him that I will try to return the horse to him.”

“Anything else?”

“No, nothing.”

Bernard turns to go.

“Wait!” Alain stops him before he has gone far. “I do remember something. ‘Joey.’” He pronounces the ‘J’ oddly, and the whole word comes out sounding foreign to Bernard.

“It could be a name. Is that the boy, or the horse?”

“I don’t know.”

_________

“You should tell him who he is.”

“He is Alain. That is who he is now.”

“You are splitting hairs. Who he was, then. You know his name.”

“I know his surname and his rank. That’s not his name.”

“Maybe it would trigger his memory.”

“And what good would come of that? His family has mourned him, and rightfully so. ‘Captain Nicholls’ is dead, Charlotte. Do him a kindness, and let him rest in peace.”


End file.
